Myanmar News Links: A shrine of whose remembrance?

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Museums often seem merely to house musty curios. But the choice of what to present, and how, can make a statement every bit as resonating as a politician in full flight. And few political speeches can hope to have the enduring impact on a community as does a museum, with the padded march of school groups or busloads of attentive tourists.

Walk into the Belgium's colonial museum outside Brussels and there stands a European missionary cast as a gold statue, an African boy clutching at his robes, and a plaque that reads: ''Belgium brings civilisation to Congo.''

Glossed over by the museum is that this introduced "civilisation" included cutting off villagers' hands, noses and ears should they fail to meet King Leopold's quota for the rubber harvest. Millions are thought to have died and Belgium's ruthless rule over Congo was the inspiration for Joseph Conrad's masterpiece Heart of Darkness.

In another museum, on the outskirts of Washington DC, an old plane rests in a hangar for public display. It is the Enola Gay, the US air force B-29 Flying Fortress that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. That much is acknowledged - but far more time is devoted to explaining the aircraft's technical sophistication than the deadly price of its payload.

Australia has ''G for George'', a Lancaster bomber expertly enshrined inside the War Memorial in Canberra. Flashing lights and booming claps pound out in an attempt to evoke a 1943 night bombing mission over Berlin and pay tribute to the thousands of Australian aircrew who fought in the war. My young son was in frightened awe of what the memorial calls the "striking by night" show when I took him, and happily jabbered about G for George weeks after.

And yet, as Peter Stanley, one of Australia's most prolific military historians, reminded me, scant mention is made in the Memorial's display of the half-million German civilians killed in the Allied bomber offensive.

"My fundamental view is that Yasukuni and the Australian War Memorial are more similar than different," Stanley explains. "They both use and interpret history to valorise martial forebears. Both present their causes as honourable and worthy, and those who fought and died as sacrificial heroes."

Many people will find the comparison uncomfortable. But he is right.

To the casual visitor Yasukuni shrine appears tranquil. I visited a few weeks ago during a break from a trip paid for by the Japanese government, hoping to see what all the fuss was about. The cherry blossom lent a rosy haze to the air, and hundreds of people streamed across the grounds and paid respects. It is certainly popular.

So is the Australian War Memorial, last year it attracted more than 900,000 visitors. But perhaps the key difference with Yushukan museum is which side prevailed in the conflict.

The region seethes because the shrine honours Japan's war dead, including some guilty of notorious war crimes during the years of Japanese occupation. This history war is undoubtedly fuelled by the carnival-like souvenirs in the museum's gift shop, where replica imperial flags can be collected with scale models of warships - such as the aircraft carrier Akagi, involved in the 1942 bombing of Darwin. Revisionist textbooks are also on sale.

Regional anger is greatest after visits by Japanese leaders. Even the US has made clear its displeasure, and no wonder. Wandering the museum hall, a timeline with photographs and quotes stretching down one wall none-too-subtly implies the US deliberately gulled the Japanese imperial forces into attacking Pearl Harbour.

In December, Washington fruitlessly implored Prime Minister Shinzo Abe not to go - and the day before President Barack Obama visited Tokyo last month, about 150 Japanese MPs marched to the shrine.

Japan is often unfairly criticised for wartime atrocities by countries, especially China, with human rights records that are far from exemplary. But the choice of what is displayed at Yasukuni shrine challenges the adage that history is written by the victors.

Daniel Flitton is senior correspondent.